Home Page of David T. Hardy

The Hardys have been providing
speedy justice in Arizona since 1871, when an outlaw named Nathaniel Hickman
fled justice in Ft. Lyons, Colorado and escaped to Arizona.

Under the alias of Charles W. Hardy, Hickman became a prosperous rancher
in Cave Creek. He married Sarah Young, widow of Phoenix's first J.P., James
Ansley Young, and later was elected Cave Creek's first Justice of the Peace.
Charles Hardy left one clue to his actual identity--a cattle brand with
his real initials.

The outlaw jurist Hickman/Hardy held court at the Phoenix Mine, with
perhaps a bit of a firm hand: a turn-of-the century doctor
writes of a "rancher Hardy," a fast gun who terrified him
with recollections of how crime had been dealt with in his time, and it
is strange that the State Archives have no returns from that court. Times
were dangerous--the Pleasant Valley Range War, which killed dozens, was
at its peak (It had been started by the deputy assigned to Hardy's court).
Perhaps there was reason to leave the court's proceedings undocumented.

Hardy, or should we say Hickman, died in Yuma in 1913. Eighty years after
his death, we found his Civil War pension application--he had served in
the 49th Illinois Infantry, from Nashville, Illinois--and discovered that
the family name was a criminal alias.

The
whole sordid tale was documented in
an article I wrote for the "Saga of Southern Illinois."

Nathaniel's grandson was my father, Albert David Hardy; born in Yuma
in 1919, he was raised in Globe and St. David, and moved to Tucson. He died
here December 12, 2001, at the age of 82. Before he died he did write out
some memories of his life on the Arizona frontier. Click
here for them.

I've practiced law since 1975, first in Arizona, then on a long stint
(1982-92) in Washington, D.C.: my work there involved representing the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, largely on Endangered Species Act matters. Tiring
of the government, the East, and of making the world safe for the Guamanian
Fruit Bat, I returned to solo practice in Tucson. (If you're interested
in the Endangered Species Act, click here for my monograph
on the subject.

My work now largely focuses on firearms and first and second amendment
issues -- rights to free speech and to bear arms. Some of my scribblings
can be found on the World Wide Web--

my Supreme Court brief (set your browser to
six inch margins for best viewing) in Sheriff Mack v. United States;

My research interests also include the Civil War, in particular the 49th
Illinois Infantry and the Second Michigan Infantry. For my civil war page,
click here.

I've done some scribbling on the 1993 tragedy at Waco, and recently released
a book on the Waco incident and the interesting FLIR tapes made there. Try
my Waco page. For previews of the book, click here. The Waco matter and homepage did result in a
bit of press coverage--click on the following for coverage in the New York Times,
and the Arizona
Republic. I appeared on Nightline against an FBI spokesman, pulled out
written proof of agency perjury.... and a board at FreeRepublic carried
the discussion
as the show aired. I did okay--the comments note of the FBI representative
that "This spokesman is dying...really dying... he's miserable"
and "They have that lying FBI negotiator (Gage or Sage) and he is treading
water," and "This is devastating stuff." A rough transcript
is online: click here.

I've become interested in genealogy since discovering the colorful past
of my bushwhacking ancestors: I'd be interested in hearing from anyone linked
to the Bartons/ Bogarts/ Corlews/ Phillips of Missouri, who went to California
with the Gold Rush. For more on these ancestors, click
here. I'm interested in hearing from the descendants of James
Ansley Young, b. in Tennessee 1822, who moved from Phoenix to Yuma to
California (the descendants, that is: Judge Young himself became a fugitive
after shooting a constituent in a street fight in Phoenix) or, of course,
the Hickmans of southern Illinois. (Descendants of Bill Hickman, who was
in Utah in the 1870's, may also inquire, provided they have a high threshold
of embarassment--between seventy killings and twenty wives, he did much
to make the west wild!) For my own family tree, beginning with my father,
click here. Or take a look at the Civil War
careers of the Dutchers and Lamberts of Michigan.

A few of my manuscripts have made neither the web nor print yet (a hint
to any publishers). Among these are a civil war novel and a work on the
Columbus litigation (Christopher C. had a contract with Ferdinand and Isabella,
giving him the rights to between a third and a half the value of any land
he discovered. To try to enforce it, he filed a probate claim against Isabella,
his son sued Ferdinand for breach and Cortez for "claim jumping,"
and his descendants engaged in a world-record probate litigation that was
tried over a 226-year period).

Oh, yes. For a sample of my warped humor, just try the humor
homepage, or my efforts at dealing with the foremost problem facing
Western civilization: Barney the Dinosaur.